Imagine manually having to send a member username and password every single time someone asks for it. Sounds exhausting, right? That used to be a daily task for Charmaine Swinger, Member Services Manager of X3, but not anymore. Hear Charmaine’s story of switching to ClubReady and the challenges X3 has overcome after making the switch.

X3 offers more than your typical gym and martial arts gym. At over 8 locations in the Atlanta area, you can kick, fight, and flow your way to a healthier lifestyle through general fitness classes and personal training.

How long have you been a ClubReady customer?

Charmaine: We were with ClubReady, then we left ClubReady, and now we are back with ClubReady as of last year. We felt it was the best business move to make. I was able to work a management position with both billing departments and can honestly say I get through work smoother with ClubReady, since we have ownership of our billing.

How was the process of implementing the ClubReady product? 

Charmaine: When we reimplimented ClubReady, we were in a COVID year, so there were already more problems with cancellations or people that couldn’t pay for something at the time. We had to work out a lot of stuff to changeover, but it was a good change. The training that ClubReady offered our employees was top notch, so the X3 team was able to catch on very quickly.

What was the biggest challenge prior to using ClubReady? 

Charmaine: The financial hardship was a big thing. It was a lot of miscommunication since we were going party to party. Whereas with ClubReady, we have ownership over our billing, which means we can work out what we need to for that member. It is specialized for each person and we’re able to handle particular situations within a certain amount of time.

Charmaine: Within the last year, another challenge was sticking to what we’re telling the members that we’re implementing. Now that we’re with ClubReady, I see less challenges with adherence policy because I’m preaching it and I’m also the one changing it for you. It stays within our realm of what I said, goes.

How does technology impact the member experience? 

Charmaine: This is a technology based generation. Technology is everything to us right now, which is why I feel this was the right move to have ownership over billing. ClubReady offers great support. The support tab allows you to talk to  someone really quickly. You all offer great guidance with that. I never hear from anybody in the queue, outside that day of writing them.

What is your experience with the ClubReady Support Team? 

Charmaine: I’ve always received some type of feedback or direction from them. They’ll always navigate me to the right thing. If I asked for past dues, they would provide the training guide. It is always good guidance with the problem I am facing.

What do you think will be the most important thing for X3 going into the future? 

Charmaine: Keeping everybody up on the ClubReady training. I’m a little biased because I was able to use ClubReady in the past.

What’s your favorite thing about ClubReady? 

Charmaine: I have full access. Nothing is touched or moved in the notations on ClubReady. I love that. Everything is sent out automatically. For example, if I’m canceling, I only have to go back and send something that says it’s been officially canceled, automations handles the rest. ClubReady is great with notifying you of the membership being removed, the auto renewal being removed, notifying you of cancellation, and any type of change to your account that we’re doing. ClubReady simplifies things. We’re able to have a button where we can just click and send out the login information instead of us having to go and find all of the information and sending out the email ourselves. The automatic emails have helped a lot.

How many users are in the system with ClubReady? 

Charmaine: Over a hundred. Everyone uses ClubReady no matter what aspect they’re using it in. I use it for reports the majority of the time. We use ClubReady completely with our lead management and bookings. Everything goes through ClubReady. Checking in, clocking it, it helps that everybody’s on one accord across all of the X3 franchises.

What is the future of X3? 

Charmaine: People always ask us to go outside of Atlanta. X3 is doing a lot of expansion to go to North Marietta and Athens. It’s phenomenal.

Is it time for you to eliminate the middleman and overcome your studio challenges? Smooth out your processes and take a deep dive into how ClubReady can help you keep your multi-unit studios modern and seamless.

Past Due Collections. Three words that may scare you away. For Kacey Glessner, Senior Director of Corporate Operations, she ran towards the ability to find a service to assist her with past due collections, especially as X3 continued to grow their operations in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Hear from Kacey as she walks us through their journey of realizing they needed some assistance with past due collections.

X3 is a multi-unit fitness studio that has a little bit of something for everybody. They are primarily class based for martial arts and kickboxing, but have general fitness and personal training from beginners to professional level as well.

How long has X3 been a ClubReady customer & when did you realize you needed a change? 

Kacey: Overall, around eight years. From 2008 through 2018 we were collaborating customers, we had transitioned to another company and then we came back in 2020. We were bringing on our fourth location at the time and we thought we could be doing it better than I was executing with past due collections. Bringing in professionals to handle it was probably a deciding factor as well for Mike, owner of X3.

What causes clubs to need past due collections? 

Kacey: The last couple years it’s definitely been people’s finances in general. We’ve noticed a lot more hardship. Back when I was doing it, it was a pretty even spread of people not wanting to pay because of getting off track. We are term based, most of our memberships are 12 or 24 months and sometimes people just fall off.

How big of a problem was past due collections for X3 & how was ClubReady able to help?

Kacey: It was a huge problem. Back in the beginning, we used to have an in-house person who did all of our collections when they had three locations at that time. That person was me. It takes a very special type of person to do past due billing and account management in general. I did it for two years. It was very hard. Being able to transition to an external company was huge for us. We don’t even notice what’s going on behind the scenes. It’s very seamless.

What was your experience with the other companies & why did you come back? 

Kacey: When we did go to a different platform, I don’t wanna name names, but the other billing platforms were very complex. We lost a lot of revenue. For example, having club account billing versus automated billing for members was too much to keep up with. It’s much easier now.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a multi-unit studio?

Kacey: Scalability. We are always looking for the next location. Consistency. One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about ClubReady is the automation. That was one of the things I implemented while I was doing it because it can be a lot to keep up with. It’s hard to manage hundreds of accounts as one person. Being able to reach all of those people through emails, texts, and phone calls has been huge. That was a huge issue for us leading up to the transition.

Other than automation, what is your favorite thing about ClubReady? 

Kacey: Definitely self sufficiency. I love it. I can do pretty much everything that I wanna do. If I want to run a promotion or make a new deal to sell, I can do everything myself. I don’t have to send it to an intermediary team who works on it and then sends it back to us a week later. That’s probably the biggest thing for me. Also, I like that it is all in one. Being able to manage prospects, members, and sales all in one place has been huge. I’ve used other systems where you have nine different platforms for everything and it gets very messy.

If a seamless process that you ‘don’t even know what’s happening behind the scenes’ is what you are looking for. Look no further. Past due billing can be a major issue, especially when trying to scale your business, but ClubReady is a one-stop-shop for all of your past due communication needs.

Interested in hearing more about the partnership between X3 and ClubReady?